


postmarked (a study in contrasts)

by tagalongcookies



Category: Wintle's Wonders - Noel Streatfeild
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-23
Updated: 2010-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-14 00:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tagalongcookies/pseuds/tagalongcookies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel and Hilary promise to write to each other faithfully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	postmarked (a study in contrasts)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosie_Rues](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosie_Rues/gifts).



> My copy of this book has been worn ragged from endless re-readings; it's my favorite Noel Streatfeild book and one of my fondest childhood memories. I never even considered that one could write fanfiction for this, but when it went out for a pinch your prompt really spoke to me and I decided to pick it up as a treat. I hope you enjoy it, bb--Happy Yuletide!
> 
> Thanks to my beta, st_aurafina, who totally helped me out at the last minute despite her own work. I can't thank you enough for all of your help--you absolutely whipped this story into shape. All remaining mistakes mine!

After moving out of the Wintle’s and going on to lives in two very far away cities, London and Hollywood, Rachel and Hilary promise to write to each other faithfully.

For all of Hilary’s flightiness in other areas of her life, this is one promise that she keeps. Her relationship with Rachel has always embodied the definition of steadfast, loyal, and true. On the days she receives a letter from Rachel, she calls up Pursey and shares the news. Her husband always has to hear all about Rachel’s adventures over dinner that evening. Then he is abandoned while Hilary pens her response.

Their letters are a study in contrasts.

Rachel’s letters are painstaking commentary on each and every aspect of Hilary’s letter before a brief synopsis of her own activities. Hilary’s letters are a funny caricatures of all of the people in her life, from her husband to her mailman to the woman in front of her in line at the grocer’s.

Hilary complains that Rachel never includes any of the good gossip from her movies. Rachel insists that she would never talk to Elizabeth Taylor about her relationships, so she doesn’t know why Hilary thinks she would know anything that wasn’t already in the tabloids. Hilary says that Rachel doesn’t know how to properly enjoy the fame and grandeur of her life in Hollywood.

The letters are the only way they communicate for months. Hilary’s busy at first with her husband and a host of new domestic duties to learn. Rachel had flown home to attend the wedding, but there hasn't been a chance for Hilary to come and visit her in Hollywood. As time passes, Rachel mentions it more and more often, inviting the two of them to come and stay for as long as they’d like with her in Hollywood.

“It’s particularly ironic, because if you think about it, Hollywood’s my hometown,” Hilary tells her husband after Rachel’s latest letter. “After all, it’s the place that I joined the Lennox family as Rachel’s sister.”

“If you’d like,” he suggests. “We could fly out for Christmas?”

Hilary’s whole face lights up. “Really? You’d like that?”

“Of course,” he says, smiling at her. He’s never been able to refuse her a thing, not since he saw her dancing gaily in the chorus of a Christmas pantomime and was smitten.

Hilary writes to Rachel immediately to make plans.

“There’s plenty of room here, don’t be silly,” Rachel writes back in her next letter. “You don’t need a hotel when my house is far larger than I need. My agent said that it looked badly for an actress to live in my old flat so he went and got me this ridiculous place.”

When Christmas finally comes, they all spend a lovely two weeks in Los Angeles. Rachel takes them to a variety of beaches, luxurious shops and fancy restaurants. Even the salespeople and waiters are glamorous in Hollywood, at least to Hilary’s eye. And Rachel’s house is just as grand as Hilary had pictured. Hilary and her husband meet everybody whom Rachel says matters, including the director of her latest film. Hilary thinks he might be interested in being more than that. It’s like a modern fairy-tale, she tells Rachel.

“I had too many spots in school to be a princess,” Rachel says. “It’s strange, when I think about it all. I always felt so awkward, so ugly. I never expected to be here, not when we were growing up with Mummy in Folkstone or when I was stuck as a Wintle’s Wonder group three.”

“You were always beautiful,” Hilary says loyally. “Mummy always said it, too. Just because Mrs. Wintle didn’t want to see it doesn’t make it any less true.”

At this, Hilary’s husband looks at Rachel carefully. Her features are as lovely as Hilary’s, although in an entirely different way. Hilary is the fair, apple-cheeked beauty next to Rachel’s classic cheekbones and large, dark eyes. It’s hard to see Rachel as any sort of ugly duckling, but he’s heard enough about their childhood to imagine that she was made to feel that way more than once.

He hears about their childhood more than once on the trip. Rachel seems eager to catch up on the news she’s missed about her relations, even though from what he can tell they don’t seem particularly close. A whole dinner is spent on Hilary entertaining them all with tales of the Wintle household.

“We have dinner with them once a month, can you believe it?” She says, sighing. “I always thought that once we’d moved out that would be the end of it. Although Dulcie’s actually gotten much better now that she’s grown up, and it’s even helping her career--did you hear that she got a role as Ophelia in Hamlet?”

“I didn’t, but I only write to Uncle Tom,” Rachel says. “And that’s lovely, but of course he doesn’t talk about what’s going on in that department.”

“He’s as sweet as ever when we see him but Mrs. W hasn’t changed a wit. Bring up the business, and it’s a whole list of things that are wrong with her girls,” Hilary says, proceeding to reenact an entire scene from two dinners ago.

When the end of the holiday comes, it's difficult to leave. Rachel makes them agree to consider coming back out for next summer, maybe over the Fourth of July for the fireworks. Hilary looks at her husband with a pleading expression until he agrees to try to get time off. The farewells are the worst part. Her husband waits outside as they say good-bye in the mansion’s foyer.  
They look at each other sadly for a minute.

“Promise you’ll write,” Rachel says, breaking the silence.

Hilary smiles fondly at her sister. Others in her life might fall by the wayside, but never Rachel. She’s been the one constant in her tumultuous life. “Always,” she says. “I swear on my Awkward-Adas.”

It takes a beat, but then Rachel bursts out in laughter. “Oh god, I thought I’d never speak of those awful things again.”

Hilary’s husband pokes his head back into the house, confused. “Is something going on in here? I thought this was the part where you were supposed to be saying your teary good-byes.”

“Just a bad memory,” Hilary says, her smile angelic. Next to her, Rachel rolls her eyes and then hugs her tight.

A letter from Rachel turns up in their mailbox a week after they’ve arrived home. The envelope is postmarked the day they left. Hilary’s husband doesn’t understand how those two always have so much to say to each other. He supposes that he might never understand. He thinks it will always just be a sister thing.


End file.
